Gold

These are ok poems. When I read them, I don't hear nails sliding across a chalkboard.

The Gold one is about Zeus in Greek Mythology. I'm no Homer so bear with me.

The second one is a love poem about what it is to hold the love of your life.

Tell me what you think they are about!

Blayac lightly illustrated this page. I think it was due to the full page picture that preceded this page. I think it works.

[BLAYAC: Joe is correct about the reason behind me lightly illustrating this page. Though I don't think this art is necessarily bad I don't think it's all that interesting either. It's interesting to look back on these pictures I drew over a decade ago and see how far I've come.]

The King and the Lady

Here's a cool picture Blayac drew for a poem that you will see on the next page. enjoy!

[BLAYAC: I like this picture with the exception of the rays of light shining behind the king and the lady. As you can plainly see I drew it just a bit off there on the right side. It's always bugged me, but I was young and still learning my chops.]

The Second Year

I'm back! With the computer down and all those horror movies to watch in October, I haven't allotted any time to this little project. I haven't forgotten about it though.

Now we move on! I hope this next selection of poems is better than the last. Some of them make me cringe...others just sit on the page and waste space...and others I think are pretty good. Let's see what you think! How many will make you wish you couldn't read!

All the art in this next section was done by Blayac. So if the poems are that bad, maybe the art will make up for it!

And away we go!

It's Time

Here's a couple of mediocre poems.

I don't like to title my poems. I titled all the poems in this collection for some reason. The poem called My Iceboy is Hot is a typo. Iceboy was supposed to be Icebox. I thought that Iceboy sounded funny so I left it alone.

The pictures are by Blayac. I think he did a good job with the crap I gave him to work with here. Enjoy!

[BLAYAC: I like the face with the cross-like shadow but the iceboy one could've been better. I think I should've drawn this boy made of ice who is melting. That would've been cool. Oh well, live and learn.]

Angelic II

Here's a poem about angels.

When I was putting this book together, I found the earlier poem, Angelic. I'd forgotten I wrote that one. I was amused by how similar these two were. So here is another poem about that same thing written four years apart. Yeah, I see the previous picture bled through...enjoy!

[BLAYAC: Wow, I didn't contribute much to this one at all. I suppose I didn't add much here due to the fact that I knew the previous drawing of the angel and the badman would come before it. Still, that's no excuse for lackluster work as this picture so obviously is. I was afraid to add too much art to Joe's poems at times because I didn't want to accidently cover up a word or distract the reader from his prose. Which, ironically, is what I did with a couple of his poems on his next book. Joe was gracious about it, though, and told me that it would just make the reader have to concentrate more on his writing as he's reading it.]

The Angel and the Badman

Here's a great picture from Blayac. It goes with the next poem that will appear here. I don't remember if he drew this one specifically for the poem or I just thought it fit. Maybe he can clear that up!

[BLAYAC: God, you're asking me to remember something that happened over a decade ago (has it really been that long? Ah, time is like the grains in an hour glass...). You know, I don't even remember drawing this picture, I really don't. When I saw it posted on here it was like seeing it for the first time. And since I'm so detached from it I can say with all honesty that I like it. I have no clue as to what it's about, but I think I captured Joe's wild imagination pretty well here.]

Blind Angels

JOE: Here are two poems with no unicorns or mermaids! I for one am breathing a sigh of relief! I don't think I could've taken that much longer!

One of the poems is about angels. I write about angels and demons quite a bit. These poems are just there. They're not very good...they're not very bad...they just sit on the page.

This page it illustrated by Blayac. The drawings are ok. I'm not quite sure where the face is from.

[BLAYAC: You know, I have no idea why I drew the face. You think I would have at least made it blind. Of course, sometimes its hard to figure out exactly how to illustrate some of Joe's poems, they can, on occasion, defy all attempts at description. I must agree that this is rather lackluster work on my part, but when you're illustrating the lion's share of a book as well as juggling a hundred other responsibilities (like working on two films, Laugh A Little and Blood Pudding, drawing your own comic book, etc.) your work may suffer in other areas. I'm not using that as an excuse, mind you, I know I have better material in this poem book waiting to see the light of day. At least, as good as an eighteen year old still learning his craft could produce at the time.]